Breaking News: Former WWE Superstar Chyna Passes Away at 46

It’s the shocking news that broke overnight everyone has been talking about. The 9th Wonder of the World is no longer with us. Joanie Laurer, better known as Chyna when she was with WWE during the Attitude Era was found dead in her home in Los Angeles late Wednesday night. She was 46 years old.

As Chyna, she stands as the only woman to win the Intercontinental Championship and she did it twice. After leaving the company in 2001, WWE distanced itself from her when she started doing porn. As was mentioned on this blog post two years ago when Triple H was on the Stone Cold Podcast, WWE was waiting for Laurer to get clean so she could be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. She was battling drug addiction a few years ago and appeared on Celebrity Rehab, what was likely when WWE removed all mentions of her from WWE.com.

The obvious problem with this as was the case with Chris Benoit is the OTHER person involved in their matches. By WWE’s logic, you can’t really talk about those specific matches because of the out of ring decisions of their opponent.

Chyna was an icon and a trailblazer who never got the recognition she deserved from WWE even though some of the recent WWE Inductees have done far worse since leaving the company. We know for a fact Jake Roberts and Scott Hall are both still battling drug addiction and simply got clean enough to get inducted.

It’s a real shame Laurer, who remained close to Triple H since leaving the company wasn’t given a free pass. Besides, former WWE Superstar Sable (now married to Brock Lesnar) did porn BEFORE she came to WWE. At the very least, Chyna should be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame posthumously regardless of the cause of her death. She more than deserves it.